IPOPHL finds it difficult to comply with the law on the ease of doing business »Manila Business Bulletin

By Bernie Cahiles-Magkilat

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL), a government agency responsible for the protection of intellectual property works, may probably not be able to comply with the new law on the ease of doing business, which requires government agencies to minimize the number of days in all business processes, especially permits and licenses.

IPOPHL's Director General, Josephine R. Santiago, told reporters that his agency was one of those supposedly non-commercial government entities that needed more time to approve patents, trademarks and others

With the law and the next TRI, the government's simple commercial transactions should be approved no more than 3 days, while complicated transactions should be completed in 7 days and the most complex in 20 days, otherwise they are

A certified copy of the mark can be made in three days, but Santiago pointed out that it would be impossible to approve a patent application, trademark or drawing within a period of 20 or 40 days

", she said, showing the thickness of the voluminous documents that are to be classified and analyzed by her lawyers and her experts.

By e xample, the fastest patent approval that they got for a pasta application was two years and it is very rare. Utility model applications, industrial designs and trademarks could be faster at six months but only for registration purposes.

Even though IPOPHL wishes to comply with the law, their IPR applications are sometimes covered by international treaties. "We do not want to sacrifice quality for speed," said Santiago.

"We are not companies and we have to look at complicated databases," Santiago said. To comply with the law, she said, "We need additional human and material resources."

"We can not hire 2,000 to 3,000 people," she said. stated, adding that IPOPHL had only 250 employees. plantilla positions.

Santiago said that when the law was designed the IPOPHL was not invited to any of the consultations conducted because the law was not intended to cover the agency but is now included technical working committee for the drafting of the law. The rules and regulations of application should be published on September 19th. Other non-commercial government agencies include the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Insurance Commission, and the Food and Drugs Administration.